Candle Drippings

Saturday, November 18, 2017

A
Season of Thanks

"...O
Lord, that lends me life,

Lend me
a heart replete with thankfulness."

Shakespeare,
"Henry VI, Pt. II."

I had another birthday
the other day, and for me it was an occasion for thankfulness. Another reminder that every day is a grace
gift from God and each new year of life a blessing from His hand. Coming so close to Thanksgiving as it did
this year, only two days shy, it stirred my thoughts even more toward gratitude
to my Lord. He has given me life three
times over. The first time, naturally,
when I was born. The second time came in
Bible school when I was nine years old.
Through His Son Jesus, I was born into His kingdom. Nearly eight years ago, on Valentine's Day,
the third time came. A severe headache
turned out to be a brain hemmorhage that doctors said should have killed me in
minutes. They couldn't understand why it
didn't. However, twenty five years prior
to the appearance of the aneurism, I had suffered a head injury in an
automobile accident. Although we could
make no sense of it at the time, I now see that the sovereign hand of God was
preparing me even then for the survival that puzzled the doctors a quarter of a
century later. By His grace, He had
lifted me up, had healed me, had kept me alive.
Thank you, Lord, for your incomprehensible grace.

On my birthday this
year, I received some other reasons for thankfulness . In one of the earliest Candle Drippings
(#3, March 28, 1990), I shared the story of Rachel Allen, who, at age
twenty one months had a form of leukemia that was diagnosed as incurable. Doctors found only one course of treatment
that held out even the remotest hope for the child. It was a six week treatment plan, yet after
only three weeks, she had grown worse instead of better. Toward the end of the six weeks, while making
funeral preparations, her father, Dr. Ronald Allen, received the news that
remission had actually begun. This fall,
Dr. Allen moved from Portland, Oregon to Dallas to begin teaching at Dallas
Theological Seminary. On my birthday, I
visited Dr. Allen at the seminary; and during our conversation, he gave me the
wonderful news. Rachel is now eighteen
years old, fully well, and planning to graduate from high school this
year. Thanks again, Lord, for your
lovingkindness.

How can we express our
thankfulness to the Lord for His wonderful mercies? As I left Dr. Allen's office that afternoon,
an answer to this question came to mind.
From the Psalms, a source of strength and comfort both he and I have
learned to draw from. "It is good
to give thanks to the Lord, and to
sing praises to Thy name, O Most High; To declare Thy lovingkindness in the
morning, and Thy faithfulness by night ...." (Psalm 92.1-5).

To Thank and to praise
the Lord is both a duty and a delight.
To review those qualities of grace that belong to Him should fill our
hearts with joy. When I see His
lovingkindness expressed toward those I love, when I see His sovereign power
and faithfulness to His people --- like Rachel Allen, like even me, in spite of
my weaknesses and failures, I am ready to sing with the psalmist my praise and
thanks to Him. It is a precious thing to
give thanks to God, a precious privilege to receive His mercies and simply
return to Him a whispered word of thanks.
It is an ever-present reminder of our dependence on Him. "What do you have that you did not
receive?" asks the Apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 4.7). And James reminds us that "every good
gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of
lights" (James 1.17, KJV), such gifts as lovingkindness in the morning and
faithfulness in the evening. In the
morning, remember all the provision God has made for us as we face the
responsibilities of the day. We need,
too, to reflect on the protection He has given us through the night. After all, He doesn't owe us a new day of
life; but in His steadfast love, He gives it to us. And at the end of the day, how can we sleep
without thanking Him for His faithfulness to us throughout that day?

Each day, my back yard
fills with birds. Sparrows. Starlings.
Hummingbirds. Mourning doves. All day long, they busy themselves gathering
what has been given them. And as they
gather, they chirp and sing their thanks to God. It is a blessing just watching them. Amy Carmichael tells a similar experience of
a sunbird in her yard. Every time he
sips sugar and water, she says, he chirps and flicks his little tail. It's his way of saying, Thank you. "Do you flick your tail?" Ms.
Carmichael asks. "Don't laugh and
say, 'I haven't got a tail.' Your tail
is in your mouth. It is your
tongue. Use it." Our heavenly Father gives us good treasures
daily out of His heavenly store. Maybe
we can't always voice our thanks, but we can be full of thanks always. We can have a spirit of thanks always. Thankful.
Grateful. Right now, I am. Are you?

Thursday, June 1, 2017

The Model Church

The Baptist Faith and Message says, “A New
Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is a local body of baptized believers….”
Although its definition contains much more, this brief partial statement
provides a starting place. Most theology books or Bible studies on the subject
of the church will then generally begin their discussions with reference to the
Greek word translated “church” in the New Testament, e,kklhs,ia (ekklēsia). The word “church,” they will
tell you, comes from the word ekklēsia,
meaning “called-out ones,” making the church a body of called-out people. In
fact, Baptists usually define the New Testament church as an “assembly of
called-out believers,” a fact which is certainly true, but only in part.

“Church”
does translate the word ekklēsia, but
it does not come from that word. Instead, the word “church,” in a round about
way, comes from another Greek word, kuriako,s (kuriakos). Kuriakos
literally means “belonging to the Lord.” Although this word is not used in the
New Testament specifically of the church, it is, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the
linguistic source for our word “church.” This bit of information changes the
focus of our study significantly. No longer should we focus on ourselves as
just an assembly, but rather on the Lord to Whom we belong and Who called out
the assembly.

The
character of the church as a unique possession of God gives it an importance
far above any “called-out assembly.” Other assemblies have been called out for
various reasons. In fact, the term ekklesia
was used by the Greeks before New Testament times to designate their city
councils, assemblies called out to discuss and legislate the laws governing
their cities. The New Testament borrowed this word from the prevailing culture
and gave it a new meaning, an assembly called out by God to worship Him. As a
result of this new meaning coupled with the significance of kuriakos, no other assembly has the
distinction of being called out by and of belonging to the Lord.

In
addition to our calling out by and our possession by the Lord, what marks
distinguish the church from other assemblies? In 1 Thessalonians 1:6-10, Paul
offers a few characteristics.

1. The Word of God dominated their assembly.
Paul says they “received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy
Spirit.” (v. 6) Further, “the word of the Lord has sounded forth from [them].”
(v. 8) In 1 Thessalonians 2:13, Paul adds that he thanked God for them because
they did not receive God’s Word as the word of men, “but for what it really is,
the word of God.” If we belong to the Lord, we will love His Word, we will live
by His Word, and we will fill our hearts and minds with His Word so that His
Word literally saturates our lives both individually and collectively.

2. They recognized the Lordship of Christ.
Paul repeatedly called Him, “Lord Jesus Christ,” “Lord Jesus,” or just “Lord,”
as he discussed their faith in Him and their response to Him. This is not a
concession to the so-called doctrine of Lordship Salvation, but recognition of
a relationship that follows our maturing in the faith as we grow and get to
know Christ in all His glory. Paul; describes that Lordship even more clearly
when he commends their repentance. In 1 Thessalonians 1:9, Paul notes that they
turned to God from idols, an excellent description of what repentance really
involves. They turned to God “to serve [because He is Lord] a living and true
God [not dead, false idols].” Again, they serve Him because He is Lord.

Their
response to Him is first one of love, then a response of obedience, obedience
because of love and gratitude, no doubt, but obedience nonetheless. He is Lord
and Savior at this point, not merely Savior. In our salvation the Father “rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred
us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the
forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:13-14; see also 2 Peter 1:11) Our salvation
not only places us in this kingdom, but also makes us servants as well as sons.
Salvation begins with receiving the gift of eternal life through Christ, but it
also eventually includes submission to the King of kings and Lord of lords.

3. They “mimicked” the apostles and the Lord.
That is, they lived lives that transparently revealed the power of Christ
living in them. They did this by first imitating the example of the apostles
(cp. v. 6). Christ’s power working through the church showed the world that
they were truly Christians—“little Christs,” they truly were a kuriakos, a prized possession of the
Lord.

I’ve
given you here only a few characteristics of the model church at Thessalonica
for you to think about and meditate on. Read all of 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 and
see how many more characteristics of the model church you can find. There are
more, many more. How many of them does your church measure up to? How many do you measure up to?

Unless
otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the New American
Standard Bible, 1995 Version.

Monday, December 5, 2016

A
Christmas Love Story

Note: The following article was originally published in The
Prophetic Round-Up, Abilene, Texas, November-December, 1987, edition. My thanks
to Editor, Sam "Shmuel" Peak for permission to reprint articles I
have written for the Round-Up. I have slightly edited this version to
tighten some parts and to clarify others. May the Lord use it to encourage and edify
many. (All Scripture references in this article are from the King James
Version unless otherwise indicated.)

Valentine Michael Smith came from Mars with a whole new
idea about love and inter-personal relationships. When he tried to explain his
idea to earth people, he developed an almost cultic following. And he incited a
great deal of opposition. Particularly since his idea was not too different
from many of the modern group sex philosophies. Robert Heinlein tells about
Smith's cult and its influence in his revolutionary novel, Stranger in a Strange Land. (1961, 1991)

Another stranger in a strange land reveals a deeper, more
profound, more lasting concept of love. A young woman named Ruth, a worshipper
of the Moabite god Chemosh, left the only homeland she knew to come to Israel.
There she became a noteworthy ancestor of Jesus Christ Himself. Ruth did not
bring a new concept of love with her. Instead, in her experience in the house
of Naomi and in the grain fields of Boaz, Ruth discovered a new kind of love
and a new kind of life transcending all boundaries--racial, ethnic, geographic.
And ultimately her love story is the story of God's love revealed in Christ
Jesus. Check out some of the similarities.

For example, in the last chapter of the Book of Ruth, the
author describes her marriage to Boaz. Among the characteristics similar to the
story of Jesus there is first the focus on the divine activity surrounding the birth of her child. Before Ruth and
Boaz even consummated their marriage, the people prayed for a special offspring,
and openly acknowledged that her seed would be a gift from God. Repetition in
the text reinforces the conviction of divine activity surrounding the
conception and birth of Obed. "Let thy house be like the house of
Pharez...of the seed which the Lord shall give thee..." (Ruth
4:12, italics mine), the people cried out to Boaz. Later, when Boaz "went
in unto [Ruth], the Lord gave her conception and she bare a son." (Ruth 4:13, italics
mine) While the conception of Obed was not a miraculous virgin conception like
that of Jesus, yet it did result from a direct act of God within the womb of
Ruth. God had intervened to assure a
male offspring that became an ancestor of Jesus; and as a result, significant
in the Messianic teaching of God's Word.

A
second characteristic is the significance
of the offspring. In the hope of Israel, Ruth's seed had to be a son so he
could "raise up the name of the dead...that the name of the dead be not
cut off from his brethren...." (Ruth 4:10) The Hebrew Scriptures which we
call the Old Testament contain little teaching about immortality and eternal
life as we understand them. The patriarchs believed in a literal resurrection, as
Job 19:25-27 indicates, but knew or understood little about it. To them,
immortality meant perpetuating one's name and inheritance through one's
offspring. And for this kind of immortality, only a son would do. This explains
the prayer of Boaz in Ruth 4:10. It further explains the gravity of Onan's sin
in Genesis 38:8-10, because unlike Boaz, Onan essentially cut off his brother's
name. It was not a "sexual sin" as such, but rather a willful refusal
to honor the inheritance of his dead brother. Boaz, on the other hand,
intentionally chose to continue the name of Mahlon, Ruth's dead husband by
marrying Ruthann producing a child in the name of Mahlon. More important in the
history of Israel is the fact that any
son born to a household might in fact be the promised Messiah. As the last few
verses of Ruth indicate, Obed was not the Messiah; but he kept the line alive
in the providence of God and became an ancestor of Christ. Thus he insured, or
rather God insured through him, that the "son that is given" (Isaiah
9:6) would eventually appear.

The
place of Obed's birth provides yet
another important analogy. "Do thou worthily in Ephratah," the people
said to Boaz, "and be famous in Bethlehem." (Ruth 4:11) As the first
part of the book shows, the home of Boaz as well as the home of Naomi lay in
the little village of Bethlehem. So, although the text does not explicitly say
so, it implies through this blessing of the people on Boaz that Obed was born
there, too. Bethlehem, five miles southeast of Jerusalem, held fond memories
for all Israel. Jacob buried Rachel there. David held his coronation there.
Here Ruth and Boaz settled there to raise their family. And later the prophet
Micah would proclaim of Bethlehem, "thoughthou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out
of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose
goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." (Micah 5:2)
Not only was Bethlehem to become famous, but Boaz's son was to become famous in
Bethlehem, meaning he would receive great acclaim, renown, or appellation.
Nowhere does the Scripture reveal Obed achieving renown. But from Bethlehem,
his grandson David rose to become the most famous king of Israel. And from his
seed came Jesus, the most worthy character in all history. And both these
ancestors of Jesus were born in Bethlehem (see 1 Samuel 20:4; Matthew 2:1; Luke
2:4)

Fourthly, surrounding the birth of the child were two items of vital significance in
redemptive history. The women of Bethlehem said to Naomi, "Blessed be the Lord, which hath not left thee this day
without a kinsman...." (Ruth 4:14) In Old Testament theology, the term
kinsman is one of the most important terms. It refers to more than just a
relative of any kind, but to one who is a close relative. Robert Strong
translates it "next of kin" to stress its importance. Some
commentaries note that in many contexts the writers combine the ideas of
relationship and redemption and indicate the kinsman is a "kinsman-redeemer."
It is used in the Book of Ruth this way; and in subsequent Jewish theology, ga-al (the kinsman-redeemer) is one who
buys back the property of a relative who may have lost it through negligence,
debt, or some other means. The ga-al
buys it back to keep it in the family. He delivers his relative from danger,
from judgment, or from his enemies. So, in Ruth, the people blessed the Lord
because he has provided Naomi with a redeemer. And He has provided us with a
Redeemer in the ancestor of Ruth, Jesus Christ, who adopts us into His family
so He can actually be our "Kinsman- Redeemer."

The second aspect of
redemption history in the story of Obed is the effect of redemption. The
kinsman-redeemer becomes "a restorer of...life, and a nourisher of... old age." (Ruth 4:15) These
terms indicate that God has caused life to strengthen as it aged, or more
literally to "turn back" as though becoming youthful again. And
"to nourish" means to maintain and to guide. In Jesus Christ, we have
one who redeems life, restores its power, maintains its vitality, and guides it
unto Himself.

Finally, the child of
Ruth and Boaz contributed to building up
of the house of Israel (Ruth 4:11). God had promised Abraham a seed that
would number as the sand of the sea. Not only was Israel to grow in number, but
also to develop a quality of life surpassing that of the surrounding nations.
God had commanded them to be holy as He is holy (Leviticus 19:2). Obed, whose
name means "worshipper," was to aid in the development of Israel along
these lines, lines of holiness and quality of life. And since he fell into the
lineage of the Messiah, he contributed to the greatest building up of Israel
spiritually. He was the grandfather of David to whom God had made the promise
of an everlasting kingdom. And of his descendant, Jesus, the wise men from the
East came to Jerusalem inquiring "Where is he that is born King of the
Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him."
(Matthew 2:2) Jesus, the Son of David (Matthew 1: 1) inherited that everlasting
kingdom; and even before His birth, the angel told Mary, "the Lord God
shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the
house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end."
(Luke 1:32b-33, italics mine)

At this Christmas season,
let us, too, worship Him who in love came to Bethlehem to inherit that
everlasting kingdom and to be the Kinsman-Redeemer of all who trust Him for
life.

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Just a Closer Walk with
Thee

Can Christians caught up in the rush of modern life
really enjoy the presence of God? Can
they enjoy fellowship with Him, the pleasure of getting to know Him
better? Can they really experience the
pleasure of His company as believers of previous generations have?

Yes, they can. You can.
If you really want to, you can walk with God as Enoch and Noah and Levi
did centuries ago. Or as D. L. Moody or
G. Campbell Morgan or Chuck Swindoll or others of this century. Let's take Enoch again as our model. Enoch built a life characterized by walking
with God in intimate fellowship. He
could do this because God desires fellowship with human beings. Some would even say He pursues it. As a result, He provided the way for us to
respond to Him in faith and to walk with Him by faith. All we have to do is learn what it means to
walk with God and get in step.

As we have already seen,
a walk with God begins with reconciliation to God. Remember the words of Amos 3.3: "Can two walk together, except they be
agreed?" (KJV) Agreement with God
requires reconciliation. Sin brought
alienation, isolation, and enmity. Enoch
inherited these qualities just as we all have.
For him to walk with God, the sin must be cleansed and the enmity
removed and the man reconciled. Only God
can do all three, and we know He did it for Enoch because Hebrews 11.5 tells us
that Enoch "obtained the witness before his being taken up he was pleasing
to God."

To walk with God
requires a correspondence of nature; it requires godliness. To walk with Him, we must be like Him. The two go hand in hand; as Matthew Henry
expressed it, "What is godliness but walking with God?" But to be godly, to walk with God, we must
"become partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1.4). We must be "conformed to the image of
His Son" (Romans 8.29). For, you
see, godliness is very much also God-like-ness.
And we can't become God-like all by ourselves. Only after the Lord has placed His Holy
Spirit in us can we obey the command to "consecrate yourselves...and be
holy; for I am holy" (Leviticus 11.44).
With His Spirit empowering us, we then cease taking our own way. We abandon the way of the world. Instead, we walk with God, following the
divine way, because the divine nature He's given us enables us to look at life
the way the Lord looks at life, desire what He desires, enjoy the company He
provides. We learn how He looks at
things and what He desires by getting close to Him, by getting to know
Him. And we get to know Him by walking
with Him and by fellowshipping with Him through His Word and His indwelling
Spirit.

To walk with God is to
make God's Word our rule and His glory our end in all our actions. Enoch had a word from God in his day: the
promise concerning the seed of the woman, probably passed on through Seth from
generation to generation until it came to him.
To believe God's Word brings glory to God. To live by God's Word brings even more glory
to Him. And Enoch believed it and lived
by it. He obeyed God's Word and
proclaimed it faithfully to his generation (Jude 14-15). He preached God's judgment on the ungodly and
pursued a godly life because only a godly life would please God. And Enoch, remember, "obtained the witness before his being
taken up he was pleasing to God" because he walked with God by faith. His faith was not given to him to improve the
world or even to improve himself but just to walk with God. God gives us faith by His Holy Spirit so we
can walk with Him and His Word as a guide to show us how

To walk with God means
we set God always before us. It means we
make it our constant care and endeavor to please Him in everything and to
offend Him in nothing. It means we surrender
our will to His will. We submit
ourselves to be workers together with Him.
To walk with God means we become more and more like Him in holiness and
righteousness and moral fitness. Oswald
Chambers said, "Holiness means unsullied walking with the feet, unsullied
talking with the tongue, unsullied thinking with the mind--every detail of the
life under the scrutiny of God. Holiness
is not only what God gives me, but what I manifest that God has given me."

We manifest what God has
given us by walking with Him before the world as Children of God. Because we are His children, we walk before
Him in sincerity as Abraham did (Genesis 17.1).
We walk after Him in obedience to His leadership and commands
(Deuteronomy 13.4). As the Apostle Paul
taught, we also walk in Him revealing our union with Him that has been rooted
and established in faith (Colossians 2.6).
Finally, we walk with Him, as the saints of old did, in fellowship and
love. This is life's ideal and the
culmination of God's glorious purpose for man--no, for you and me. No wonder the hymn writer prayed

When
I was a freshman in college, I signed up for an introductory course in
philosophy. I'd read somewhere that a
good liberal arts education is a good basis for proper interpretation of the
Bible, especially an education rich in studies in literature, history, and
philosophy. So, I took my first step
toward that kind of education with philosophy 1101. But what made this philosophy course so
interesting was not the subject matter, but the professor. Dr. Charles Lovett had an unusual philosophy
of education. When he gave an exam, he
believed his students should be exposed to more truth than error. Because of the size of the class, he mostly
gave multiple choice exams. But, unlike
the usual multiple choice exam where you identify the correct answer out of
four or five possible answers, Dr. Lovett's exams offered three or four correct
answers and one incorrect answer. The
student had to spot the error, identify the incorrect answer.

How
like the Spirit of God! He fills our
hearts and minds and lives with truth, equipping us to identify and avoid error
in the world around us. He even provides
a teacher to guide us through this truth. He gives us Grace, who teaches us
first to identify and to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions. But Grace also teaches us how to live ---
"sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age." (Titus
2.12) In a nutshell, to live a life
pleasing to God. And to please God, we need to do all three: think
right, do right, live right.

First,
Grace teaches us to think right, to live sensibly. The King James Bible translates this word as soberly. It comes from a Greek word that means with
sound mind, sober-minded, self-controlled.
According to W.E. Vine, the word suggests "the exercise of that self-restraint
that governs all passions and desires, enabling the believer to be conformed to
the mind of Christ." To live
sensibly means we exercise our minds. We
use our minds to make sound judgments concerning the situations of our
lives. Sound judgments that enable us to
distinguish between good and evil, even in the subtle situations or gray
areas. Sound judgment that enables us to
determine what we should do, how we should act, how we should respond to the
influences and temptations we encounter every day of our lives. You see, the
battle with worldly passions and ungodliness, even the battle with the
devil himself, is lost or won in our minds.
That's why, when Paul pleads with us to present ourselves, body and all,
to God as a living, holy sacrifice, he adds the admonition "...do not be
conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that you may prove what the will of God is...." (Romans 12.2, italic mine)

When
confronting ungodliness and worldly passions, we should exercise self-control
over our body as well as our mind. Jerry
Bridges says that self-control of our bodies "should be aimed primarily at
three areas of physical temptation: gluttony
(in both food and drink), laziness, and sexuality or impurity." The Apostle Paul offers sound advice on how
to do this, sensibly. He says,
"whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is
pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence
and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things."
(Philippians 4.8). Let your mind dwell
on godly things, bring your body under the control of your mind, and live your
life accordingly.

Next,
Grace teaches us to do right, to live righteously. Righteous means to be just and upright,
without prejudice or partiality, according to God's standard. It means to live so that the judgment of God
approves the life we live. To do this,
we need to be God-like in our character; and that means first to be righteous,
to be holy, because God's standard says, "Be holy, because I am
holy." (1 Peter 1.16) Let's look at
an example. When Paul wrote to the
Ephesians to stop living like the Gentiles and to start living a life of
holiness, he addressed three general areas of morality: Honesty, peaceableness, and purity. He said, "...laying aside falsehood,
speak truth, each one of you.... Let him
who steals steal no more [honesty]....
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put
away from you, along with all malice [peaceableness].... But do not let immorality or any
impurity...even be named among you [purity]...." (Ephesians 4.25,28;5.3)

Finally,
Grace teaches us to live right, live godly. In the Bible, godly means to exercise
piety characterized by a Godward attitude, to be devout. A godly person lives a life characterized by
devotion to God, a devotion so intense you can almost see it on their
faces. Such devotion is found in the cry
of David to God: "I shall seek Thee earnestly." (Psalm 63.1) The Lord Himself reminds us in Jeremiah
(29.13), "And you will seek Me and find Me when you seek for Me with all
your heart." If ungodly means to
not regard God, godly means to have regard for Him, for His glory, for His will
in every aspect of our lives, doing everything out of love and reverence for
Him.

At
the Alamo in San Antonio, on a wall near the main entrance is a portrait with
the following inscription: "James
Butler Bonham --- no picture of him exists.
This portrait is of his nephew, Major James Bonham, deceased, who
greatly resembled his uncle. It is
placed here by the family that the people may know the appearance of the man
who died for freedom." No literal
portrait of Jesus exists either. But by
His Holy Spirit, each of us should "greatly resemble" Him. The
likeness of the One who makes us free should be seen clearly in the lives of
everyone of His true followers. And, by the discipline of grace, it can be
seen.

Monday, September 26, 2016

A Declaration
of Dependence

One look at those eyes, dark, alert, brimming with life, and
I was hooked. M'Kala looked so tiny and fragile in my arms as she dropped her
head against my shoulder. Then she dribbled on my jacket lapel. She didn't even
smile at me afterward. Just raised her head and nonchalantly gazed around. Her
cheeks held the faint blush of pink so characteristic of infants. And as I
stroked her chin, she paused, scrunched up her nose as if preparing to cry,
then smiled and began to gaze around again. Tiny fingers wrapped around my
thumb and would not let go. She never blinked nor made a sound even when I
gently pried her fingers free and returned her to her mother.

As she turned to rest her head against her mother's breast, I
thought, what a gentle picture of our relationship with the Lord. Like little
M'Kala snuggled in her mother's arms, safe and warm, we lean on the Lord in
simple trust. A wise man once said, " Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own
understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths
straight." (Proverbs 3:5-6) What does it mean to trust in the Lord?
Solomon uses the Hebrew word batach,
one of two words in the Old Testament expressing trust and dependence. Franz
Delitzsch says it means to "lean
with the whole body on something, in order to rest upon it." Trust
in the Lord, then, equals "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms."

It begins with life itself, life that comes from the Lord and
depends on Him for its endurance. M'Kala, before emerging from the womb,
received life from her parents. Her mother's body nurtured that life as she
grew and developed. Now, at three months, she still depends on her mother for
life and sustenance. For every breath we take, for every cell that grows in our
bodies, we depend upon the Lord, "for in him we live, and move, and have
our being...." (Acts 17:28a, KJV) Job said, "The Spirit of God has
made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life." (Job 33:4)

M'Kala is still resting in her mother's arms. What a sense of
security this must give a little child, to calm her fears and to assure her of
protection and safety. "I will say to the Lord,
the Psalmist cried, "'My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!'
For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper.... He will cover
you with His pinions, And under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness
is a shield and bulwark." (Psalm 91:2-4) With all these resources to
protect us, who can harm us? When we feel threatened, we can run to our Father
for safety. You see, batach is a
child-like, unwavering confidence in our Father's wisdom, faithfulness,
strength, and love (2 Chronicles 20:15). It just means I can depend on Him for
all my needs.

We also depend on the Lord for guidance. As M'Kala grows, her
parents will teach her to walk and to talk, guiding her growth along the way
with their wisdom. They will show her how to dress herself, how to behave
properly, how to treat others. If we trust in the Lord as Solomon advises, acknowledging
Him in all our ways, He "will direct [our] paths" (Proverbs 3:6b,
KJV). He will show us what we need to help us grow up in Him. The Lord "will continually guide you, And satisfy
your desire in scorched places, And give strength to your bones; And you will
be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water whose waters do not
fail." (Isaiah 58:11)

The ancient Hebrews knew a God whose chief characteristic was
faithfulness, trustworthiness. (Deuteronomy
7:9) They knew themselves to be utterly without resources, personal or
otherwise. How much better to be utterly dependent on a dependable God!

About Me

I am a member of a Southern Baptist Church and an author and
conference speaker, having read papers at regional and national meetings of the
Evangelical Theological Society and the Near Eastern Archaeological Society. I hold advanced degrees in English and Biblical Studies. I have published articles and book reviews in Artifax,
The Journal of Dispensational Theology,
and Bibliotheca Sacra. For more than
ten years, I wrote a monthly newsletter also called Candle Drippings. In addition, I have taught writing and
research at Tyndale Theological Seminary, and
currently serve as thesis/dissertation advisor at Tyndale. I served as senior editor of Tyndale Seminary Press for a number of years. For more than ten years, I also served as Assistant Scoutmaster/Chaplain to a Boy Scout Troop and currently minister as a Bible
teacher at Sagamore Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.